What makes you hard to replace?

From  Star Trek Inspirational Posters (initially found in a Stephen Abrams PPT)

Uh, our state's budget deficit is projected to be $2 BILLION next legislative season. School buses cost more to run. School buildings cost more to heat. School employees cost more to insure. Our special education and ELL populations are swelling. Tech Director salaries are expected to increase by 50%. (I wish.)

Ya think there might be some program and position cuts in Minnesota schools coming?

Schools will have higher expectations made of them to teach more children to higher levels, to reduce the drop out rate, to teach HOTs, to supply a stream of future engineers and scientists, to keep children safe and healthy - and all with fewer dollars.

Ya think there might be a reshuffling of how money is spent in Minnesota schools coming?

Librarians, who would suffer and how if you didn't come back this fall? What critical jobs would go undone - or be badly done? Who would miss your professional services? (We know everyone would miss your charming personality.) Why might the administrator who cut your job suffer and rue having made the cut?

I would work right now to:

• Be your building's webmaster.
• Be your building's network administrator.
• Be your building's staff support for the student information system, online testing, and new technologies.
• Be your teacher's support system for all things inquiry-based.
• Be your students' go-to person for the next great book to read, hard to find information, guide to completing complex problem-based assignments.

That's my short list. What is on yours? Find jobs that need doing that no one else can or is willing to do. (Sound familiar?)

Don't be your school's Ensign Ricky.

_______________________________________

This was my original post. But another side of job security haunted me as I wrote it. The companion piece is next.

Obsolete or obsolescent?

The adjective obsolescent refers to the process of passing out of use or usefulness -- becoming obsolete. The adjective obsolete means no longer in use--outmoded in design, style, or construction. (about.com)

A study in contrasts:

• This month hundreds of people lined up to purchase the latest iPhone. It allows people to place cell phone calls. Just like the phone they already own.
  
• This month with the retirement of one of our kindergarten teachers, the Mankato Schools got rid of its last Apple IIe computer. It was still used as a word processor, spreadsheet, keyboarding tutor, and skills tutor (via MECC games.) Just like the ones we are buying new this year.
  

When should we label a technology obsolete and when should it be called obsolescent? Is this differentiation merely annoying pedantry of interest and importance only to English teachers? Or do we all need to be more thoughtful about how we use these two adjectives - and be aware of their subtle influence on our views and actions?

Miguel Guhlin mentioned a couple times in his SecondLife talk last Tuesday evening that his district has a high percentage of obsolete computers - a factor that impedes the successful integration of technology into common pedagogical practice. (Miguel, correct me please if I misunderstood.) I suspect many district technology specialists make the same complaint about obsolete computers.

Yet I often wonder if this not often an easy excuse for many educators. Our district holds on to its computers and other technologies for a very long time  as my example above illustrates. But at the same time we have always practiced a form of "sustainable" technology implementation.  Our mission-critical computers are replaced on a regular rotation schedule of not more than five year and the older machines are moved to less critical areas or where we can establish a good deal of redundancy. We do not pretend we can support more computers than we can replace on an established basis. The theory that is it better to have one computer that works all the time than two computers that only work half the time.

We find that while computers suffer from obsolescence for a very long time, they rarely become truly obsolete. To be categorized as obsolete, computers in our district must be more than five years old and:

• Need repairs that cost money - in terms of parts or extensive tech time or need expert repairs.
• No longer run any software that supports either administrative or curricular purposes.
• Are sufficiently unreliable or slow that neither staff nor students are willing to use them.
  
• Can't find a home in a classroom, lab or mini-lab.

I'm seeing a paradox in our schools. The functional lives of the computers we buy seem to be getting longer. (When is the last time you could really tell your new computer had a faster processor? How many of your apps are now web-based and require little computer power?) Yet educators are demanding shorter replacement cycles. I am not sure why.

Are your computers really obsolete...or just obsolescent?

Your not yet obsolete, I hope, author...

A Minnesota Primer

This came in my e-mail today. It seems to be all over the web, but sort of cute. And accurate! Doug

SOME LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT MINNESOTA (Author Unknown)

MINNESOTA BECAME THE 32ND STATE ON MAY 11, 1858 AND WAS ORIGINALLY SETTLED BY A LOST TRIBE OF NORWEGIANS SEEKING REFUGE FROM THE SEARING HEAT OF WISCONSIN'S WINTERS.

THE STATE FLAG OF MINNESOTA CONSISTS OF A BLUE BACKGROUND UPON WHICH SITS A DESIGN BEST DESCRIBED AS "HOW A 7-YEAR- OLD CITY GIRL WOULD DRAW A PICTURE TITLED 'LIFE ON THE FARM' ''.

MINNESOTA GETS ITS NAME FROM THE SIOUX INDIAN WORD 'MAH-NEE-SOO-TAH', MEANING 'NO, REALLY, THEY EAT FISH SOAKED IN LYE'.

THE STATE SONG OF MINNESOTA IS 'SOMEDAY THE VIKINGS WILL... AW, NEVER MIND'.

THE MALL OF AMERICA IN BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA COVERS 9.5 MILLION SQUARE FEET AND HAS ENOUGH SPACE TO HOLD 185,000 IDIOT TEENAGERS YAPPING AWAY ON CELL PHONES.

COKATO, MINNESOTA IS KNOWN AS 'THE LUTEFISK CAPITAL OF THE WORLD'. AVOID THIS CITY AT ALL COSTS.

'THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW' WAS SET IN MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, AND WAS MARY'S FIRST REAL ACTING JOB SINCE LEAVING THE 'DICK VAN DYKE SHOW'. THE SHOW -ABOUT A SINGLE WOMAN'S STRUGGLE TO FIND HAPPINESS IN THE BIG CITY, WAS ORIGINALLY TITLED 'LIFE WITHOUT DICK', BUT THAT WAS CHANGED FOR SOME REASON.

THE STATE MOTTO OF MINNESOTA IS, 'WHERE EVEN A MAN WHO WEARS A FEATHER BOA CAN GROW UP TO BE GOVERNOR.'

DOWNTOWN MINNEAPOLIS HAS AN ENCLOSED SKYWAY SYSTEM COVERING 52 BLOCKS, ALLOWING PEOPLE TO LIVE, WORK, EAT, AND SLEEP WITHOUT EVER GOING OUTSIDE. THE ONLY DOWNSIDE TO THIS IS THAT A NORWEGIAN OCCASIONALLY TURNS UP MISSING.

CARTOONIST CHARLES M. SHULTZ WAS BORN IN MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, AND WAS THE ONLY ARTIST TO ACCURATELY DEPICT THE PERFECTLY CIRCULAR HEADS OF MINNESOTA NATIVES.

THE HORMEL COMPANY OF AUSTIN, MINNESOTA PRODUCES 6 MILLION CANS OF SPAM A YEAR, EVEN THOUGH NO ONE ACTUALLY EATS THE CRAP.

WATER SKIS WERE INVENTED IN 1922 IN LAKE CITY, MINNESOTA BY RALPH SAMUELSON. SADLY, HE DROWNED SHORTLY AFTERWARDS, AS THE MOTORBOAT HADN'T BEEN INVENTED YET.

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA WAS ORIGINALLY NAMED 'PIG'S EYE', AFTER FRENCH CANADIAN WHISKEY TRADER PIERRE 'PIG'S EYE' PARRANT. ITS 'TWIN CITY', MINNEAPOLIS, WAS KNOWN AS 'PIG'S SPHINCTER'.

THE STAPLER WAS INVENTED IN SWINGLINE, MINNESOTA BY A CHUBBY, MUMBLING MAN NAMED MILTON IN 1899. THE CITY WAS MYSTERIOUSLY DESTROYED BY FIRE LATER THAT YEAR.

PELICAN RAPIDS IS HOME TO A 16-FOOT-TALL CONCRETE PELICAN, WHICH SUBSISTS ON A DIET OF 4-FOOT-LONG CONCRETE FISH.

IN 1973, OLIVIA, MINNESOTA, ERECTED A 25-FOOT TALL FIBERGLASS CORN COB TO CELEBRATE ITS RICH, AGRICULTURAL HERITAGE. THEN IN 1974, IT WAS EATEN BY A 50-FOOT STATUE OF BABE THE BLUE OX. YES, MINNESOTA HAS A LOT OF PROBLEMS WITH STATUE CANNIBALISM.

MINNESOTA LICENSE PLATES ARE BLUE & WHITE AND CONTAIN THE PHRASE 'BLIZZARDS ON INDEPENDENCE DAY - YOU GET USED TO IT.'

FRANK C. MARS, FOUNDER OF THE MARS CANDY CO. WAS BORN IN NEWPORT, MINNESOTA. HIS 3 MUSKETEERS CANDY BAR ORIGINALLY CONTAINED THREE BARS IN ONE WRAPPER, EACH FILLED WITH A DIFFERENT FLAVOR NOUGAT - CHOCOLATE, SPAM, AND LUTEFISK.

THE FIRST FULLY AUTOMATIC POP-UP TOASTER WAS INVENTED IN MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA IN 1926. MINNESOTA'S STRINGENT BREAD-CONTROL LAWS CURRENTLY ONLY ALLOW RESIDENTS TO OWN SEMI-AUTOMATIC TOASTERS.

TONKA TRUCKS CONTINUE TO BE MANUFACTURED IN MINNETONKA, MINNESOTA, DESPITE THE THOUSANDS OF GI JOE DOLLS KILLED BY THEM ANNUALLY IN ROLLOVER ACCIDENTS. NO AIRBAGS, NO SEAT BELTS. THESE THINGS ARE DEATHTRAPS, I TELL YA!

AUTHOR LAURA INGALLS WILDER WAS BORN IN WALNUT CREEK, MINNESOTA, AND WAS FAMOUS FOR WRITING THE 'LITTLE HOUSE' SERIES OF BOOKS, AS WELL AS INVENTING THE 'SPAM DIET' - WHICH CONSISTS OF LOOKING AT A PLATE OF SPAM UNTIL YOU LOSE YOUR APPETITE. MUCH LIKE THE 'LUTEFISK DIET'.

THE SNOWMOBILE WAS INVENTED IN ROSEAU, MINNESOTA SO AS TO ALLOW FAMILIES A MEANS OF ATTENDING INDEPENDENCE DAY PICNICS.

MINNESOTANS ARE ALMOST INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM WISCONSINITES. THE ONLY WAY TO TELL THEM APART IS TO ASK IF THEY VOTED FOR MONDALE IN '84.

So then, now ya know. Doug